Home Instead Senior Care

About the service

Home Instead Senior Care is a domiciliary care service providing care and support to people living in their own homes. The service provides support to older adults, some of whom may be living with dementia, a physical disability or a sensory impairment. At the time of our inspection there were 79 people using the service.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

At the time of the inspection there was no registered manager in post. There had been a change of ownership to the company and the new nominated individual was in the process of developing and introducing new processes and systems.

Without exception, everyone spoken with was complimentary about the service they received from their individual care staff members. The staff we spoke with were dedicated to the people they supported and passionate about their role within Home Instead Senior Care.

Feedback was sought from people, relatives and staff through surveys, care reviews and staff supervisions. The provider worked effectively with health care professionals. People and relatives felt involved in the planning of their care.

People received personalised care from kind staff members who had the skills and knowledge to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively. People and their relatives all told us how wonderful, caring and kind their care staff were.

Staff were aware of their obligation to report any concerns and the provider had processes in place to support them. They knew the signs to look out for if people were at risk of being abused and who to report concerns to.

The provider had safe recruitment practices in place to make sure people were supported by suitable staff members.

People's needs were assessed before they joined the service. Care plans were person centred and daily recordings were detailed. Risks to people were identified, assessed and clear information was available to staff to support them to provider safe and effective care.

People’s medication was safely administered by staff, who had received the appropriate training. There were effective measures in place to help reduce and mitigate the risk of cross contamination between home visits. The provider made sure there was a plentiful supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the staff to use.

Incidents and accidents had been investigated and appropriate action taken. Measures had been put in place to mitigate future risk of occurrence.

The culture of the provider was open and transparent. All the staff told us they felt valued and well supported by the provider and the management team.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 14 October 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Home Instead Senior Care on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Home Instead Senior Care is a domiciliary care agency that provides personal care and companionship to older people living in their own homes. Some of these people were living with dementia. At the time of the inspection, 103 people received a service from Home Instead Senior Care, however, only 43 people received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were at the heart of the service because the service was led by a dynamic and purposeful provider who promoted a positive and inclusive culture. There was a clear dedication to providing high-quality person-centred care to people, to enable people to remain living in their own homes for offering bespoke packages of support.

People and their relatives told us the service was well led and they would recommend the service to others. The registered manager had robust quality systems and processes in place to monitor and continually improve the service. The service was actively involved in promoting community activities including local fundraising events and ran a dementia friendly café to offer support to people living with dementia and their families in the local community.

People provided positive feedback about the care and support they received from Home Instead Senior Care caregivers. They told us caregivers were very kind and caring and really understood their individual needs. Caregivers were highly motivated to deliver person centred care. Relatives told us the reliability of the service had given them peace of mind.

People had a designated set of caregivers who provided all of their calls. This meant people received personalised care because caregivers knew them well. People told us about the benefit of having calls that were at least an hour long. This included promoting people's emotional wellbeing by having companionship from caregivers who the felt really cared about them. Caregivers did not feel rushed and told us they had plenty of time to sit and talk to people. Risks to people's health and well-being had been identified, assessed and monitored to ensure people received safe care and treatment.

Training was developed around people’s individual needs and included specialist training such as dementia, catheter care and patch medication awareness. People and relatives told us they felt staff were highly skilled in meeting their needs. Caregivers described the training as 'excellent'. Caregivers felt valued by the provider who had a number of initiatives which acknowledged staff's valuable contribution to their service.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

There were robust systems and processes in place to manage complaints but everyone we spoke with told us they had no cause to complain.

People and relatives told us people were safe when supported by Home Instead Senior care. The provider had robust systems and processes for safeguarding people from avoidable harm.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 15 December 2016)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Staff gained people’s consent before they were supported. However, when people were not able to make decisions about their care, even though the provider had considered their capacity, they had not assessed this and was not able to show why decisions made on behalf of these people were in their best interests.

People felt safe having the support and staff knew how to protect people from harm and abuse. There were arrangements in place to keep people safe in their homes and the provider had considered staff safety when at work. Risks to people were assessed and managed and staff knew how to supported people in a safe manner. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and the provider had safe recruitment processes in place. People were supported to have their medicines safely.

Staff were equipped with the knowledge and skills required to carry out their roles. When required, people were supported to have a balanced diet and maintain their health and wellbeing.

People were supported by staff who were kind and compassionate and knew them well. They felt listened to and were enabled to maintain their independence. People were treated with dignity and their privacy was respected.

People were involved with the planning of their care, and the support was responsive to their needs. They received support that was individual to them and their care records were personal to them. People knew how to raise concerns or complaints, and the provider acted on these in a timely manner.

The service was well managed and there were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service. This was through feedback from people who used the service, their relatives and staff, and the registered manager had a programme of audits that were used to drive continuous improvement within the service.